TIME SHALL BE NO MORE
Forward
So much has been written lately about the end. This does not mean the end of the world, but rather the end of the Gentile age.
As I was studying the Old Testament in Genesis about the father of all believers in Christ (Abraham), I discovered an interesting thing. If you start with Adam as being born in year one of the Old Testament and count forward to Abraham, you will find that he was born one thousand nine hundred and forty eight years after Adam.
I think that is very important that the father of
believers in Christ was born 1948 years forward from Adam. I also found that
God’s timetable is perfect, taking every little detail into consideration.
I believe we are nearing the end of the Gentile age, and God would have all Jewish people know Jesus is their Messiah.
This book was written to help understand that God’s time does not have to conform to us, but we must conform to His time.
Time is really irrelevant to God for He is eternal.
We have been trapped by time here on the earth since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, were run out of the garden, so that they could not eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sinful nature.
God wants us to eat of the Tree of Life (Jesus) and live for ever. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we are promised eternal life with God.
If you have not asked Jesus to come into your life and give you His eternal life, I hope this book will encourage you to do that now.
It was my pleasure to write these few words on the following pages to encourage all to accept Jesus as Saviour.
Louise Haney
TIME
What is time? Time is not anything in and of itself. It only becomes something when relating to something else.
Have you ever waked early in the morning and thought, what time is it? Time is an interesting factor in our relation to the earth. The answer to the question above could have several answers: too early for breakfast, too late to go fishing, or a specific time on the clock, such as 8 A.M.
When we speak of time we are usually referring to where the hands on the clock are pointing to, or where the sun is in relation to the earth. We are programmed to think of a minute as 60 seconds, an hour as 60 minutes, 24 hours as a day, and seven days as a week. Why?
In the very act of creation God established a day as being an evening and a morning which made up a day. Genesis 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” He also established 7 of these evening and morning cycles as being a week When He created the earth and everything and everyone in it in 6 of these cycles. Then He set aside the 7th day for rest. It is not a suggested day of rest, it is a commandment of God as we read in Exodus 34:21 “Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.”
Sometimes we think that we just cannot take out time to rest, but if we do not, we become sick and find ourselves having to take off several days together until we are well.
There is something very interesting about this cycle. Even the land was to rest the seventh year, and when it did not get rest there would be a crop failure and famine in the land. The farmer would have to let the land lay out until they could build it back up for farming.
This time we have been talking about above is the time table God has for us to use here on the earth. The only occasion that time is important to God is in His dealings with us. You see in eternity (where God dwells) time will not have a cycle like we have here on the earth, but will be everlasting.
Time is an interesting factor in our lives. If we are enjoying ourselves, time seems to fly by. If we are in pain, time seems to literally creep by. Something important happens, and we remember that; then endurance sets in until the next big happening. We do not remember the time in between, only the big happenings.
We have an inner time piece that helps us to be able to get near when guessing the time. The Brittanica says that a person running a temperature will not be able to guess the time as accurately as he would if his temperature was normal. A person who has consumed a great deal of caffeine will over estimate the time, and a person on depressants will under estimate the time. Marijuana smokers think of time as enduring and very slow to pass.
God is gracious. He will allow us to do with our allotted time whatever we choose. We can create pleasant memories or unpleasant memories; it is our choice.
We hear scientist saying that the earth has been here for millions of years. So what does that prove? Scientists, like all the rest of us, do not know what time is, so how can they measure it accurately? God, the Creator of the universe has control of time the same as He has control of everything else. We should be concerned with our relationship to the particular span of time we are allowed to live here on the earth in preparation for our eternal time with Him.
With all the space talk lately, we have heard, theoretically, that if you could travel faster than the speed of light, to another far away planet and return to the earth at the same speed, when you arrived back on earth you would not have aged. Your loved ones you left behind before you took this journey would however have lived their time out and died before you got back. You see, time, space and light are inter-connected. Time is not the same in space as it is on the earth.
An interesting simple experiment you can do is to hold a ball up very close to your face, all you can see is the ball. Pretend the ball is the same as we call now. As you move the ball away from your face, you can see before and after the ball. Could it be that the further out in space you go time becomes irrelevant? For you can not only see now (the ball) but before and after now. Here on the earth all we can see is now.
A star called Rigel, which is a little further
away than the North Star is over 400 light years away from the earth. We are told by scientist that
theoretically if you were on that planet and there was some way to see instantly
what was going on on the earth, you could see
God sees everything we are going to do even before we do it. God can see into the future as easily as He can see into the past. This is His foreknowledge. We see this in 1 Peter 1:2 “ Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”
He has not foreordained our future, but He knows before we do it what we will do. He even wrote all the believer’s names in the Book of Life before the world began. Revelation 17:8 “The beast that thou sawest was and is not ; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” You see, we that receive Jesus have had our names written in the book of life from the foundation of the earth.
We base our time on changes as we know it, for night follows day. We are told in heaven where God dwells there will be no night. There is only Light (Jesus) so time will not be governed, it will be eternal.
And time will be no more as we read in Revelation10:6 “And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:”
SCIENTIST DEFINITION OF
TIME
What is time? How do you explain it? Where did it begin?
Here are a few things the encyclopedia says about time. Time is a period during which something exists or continues. An interval comprising a limited or continuous action, measurement of duration, a period separated specifically from other periods, a period sufficient to do something, convenient moment, specified era, a known, fixed or anticipated period. Prison sentence, rate of speed, rate of tempo something is done, period elapsed between two events, designations on a clock, series of recurrences and multiplied instances.
Plato said it was “A reality that is an absolute flowing apart from the events filling it”
Aristotle said it was “The numerable aspect of motion.”
You see, time has so many meanings and uses we could go on and on listing them. There is no way to explain time really. Time has to be in relation to something before it can exist.
God gave us the thing we call time for our use here on the earth. He set the moon in the sky to judge certain time changes. A full moon occurs about every 28 to 30 days. He also gave us night and day to comprise a day.
For the part of the universe He called earth, God set up on sevens. Seven days in a week Seven year cycles for working the land. Seven thousand years for the earth. It has been six thousand years approximately since Adam and Eve. Our six one thousand year days of work have almost been completed and we will enter into our one thousand year of rest (the millennium reign of Jesus). Then eternity will begin. You see, God is not controlled by our time table here on the earth. We read in 2nd Peter that a day with God could be one thousand years with us. 2nd Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
God is not controlled by time, but is rather the Controller of time.
GOD’S TIME FOR
EVERYTHING
We know that God has not overlooked anything and He has established a specific time for everything and everyone on the earth. We read about it in the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:2 “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;” Ecclesiastes 3:3 “A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;” Ecclesiastes 3:4 “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” Ecclesiastes 3:5 “A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;” Ecclesiastes 3:6 “A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;” Ecclesiastes 3:7 “A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;” Ecclesiastes 3:8 “A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
We can easily see from the above Scriptures that God has provided for everything in our lives.
The following Scriptures are some explanations about what He has provided and how we are to use them.
Ecclesiastes 3:9 “What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?” Ecclesiastes 3:10 “I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.”
In these 2 verses it appears that Solomon is aware that man is not in control of his own destiny. Mankind since Adam and Eve has earned his living by the sweat of his brow. God provides opportunities along the way to bless him, but the man must take advantage of those opportunities.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
The best way to understand this Scripture is with another Scripture. Genesis 1:31
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” God made everything beautiful. It was the sinful heart of man putting too much emphasis on earthly things that caused the trouble. We do not understand eternity so we cannot figure out God.
Ecclesiastes 3:12 “I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.” It appears that Solomon has determined that there is no good in man himself. His goodness is of God. He has decided that the he must do the best he can under the circumstances. It does bring joy to know you are in the will of God with what you are doing.
Ecclesiastes 3:13 “And also that man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.”
I personally believe that the joy in this life comes when you work and know in your heart you have done your best. God gave us work to help us, not to hurt us.
Ecclesiastes 3:14 “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it; and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.”
In these next few chapters we will look at the contrasts of the things God has established a time for.
A TIME TO BE BORN AND A TIME TO
DIE
Two of the most important times in our life are the day we are born and the day we die. We just read in the last page in Ecclesiastes 3:2 that there is a specific time to be born and a time to die. This indicates a specific time for each. We also read in Job chapter 7 verse 1 of that appointed time. Job 7:1 “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?”
It seems we are to live and die at a set time, but we can shorten our day by doing evil as we read in Ecclesiastes 7:17 “Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?”
God has allotted each of us 70 years for our stay here on this earth. Some because of great strength may even live to be a 100. Some may die before their allotted time because of illness or an accident, but the average is 70 years.
Before the flood, people lived several hundred years. This was probably so they could populate the world. Methuselah lived 969 years. He lived the longest of any man on record. Historians say he died the day before the flood began. He was the grandfather of Noah.
God not only has provided an exact time for our death, but also had a precise time for each of us to be born. We are reminded of this by the birth of Isaac. Abraham and Sarah were past the age of childbearing when God told them He would give them a son. We read in Genesis chapter 21 that it was a time God had designated for his birth. Genesis 21:2 “And Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.”
God had promised Abraham that He would give him so many seed it would be impossible to number them. After Abraham and Sarah had lived together many years, and no children came, they thought God had forgotten His promise. Sarah gave Abraham her servant girl so they might have children by her. (They were not patient with God). Hagar bore Abraham a son and they called his name Ishmael. He later became the father of the Islamic nations. Ishmael was not the son God had promised them. He was a son of the flesh, not the spirit.
You see, later God did give Abraham a son by Sarah (the promised son) Isaac. Abraham’s and Sarah’s impatience caused trouble, for even today the descendents of the son of promise and the son of the flesh are warring against each other. The Jewish people and the Arabs have fought each other ever since.
God’s timing is not the same as ours. Look with me at God telling Satan what He will do. God promises to send a Saviour in Genesis 3::15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shat bruise his heel.”
It was about 4000 years later that the Saviour, Jesus Christ, was born. God had chosen that particular time for Jesus to be born and at the very young age of 33 He fulfilled His task here on this earth. At the specific time God had chosen, Jesus died that we might be saved. We would save ourselves a lot of grief and worry , if we would only realize that each of us have a specific time to die. When our task here on this earth is done, and our specific time comes, we will die. We do not know that time, only God knows. We must just be ready, when that time comes.
James 4:13 “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:” James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Our days are numbered by God.
A TIME TO PLANT AND A TIME TO PLUCK UP THE
PLANTED
After a hard winter and spring just appears, we all get the urge to make ready the field and plant something. We watch it grow and when it is fully ripe, we enjoy plucking it up.
When Jesus was dealing with people here on this earth, He often spoke of planting and harvesting. In fact He said one person plants the seed of the word, another waters it, and God gets the harvest. There is a special time to plant the seed (when the Holy Spirit has prepared the heart to receive). The proper time to harvest is when the full grown Christian has fulfilled his task here and is ready to receive his heavenly reward.
We read in Genesis that as long as the earth exists there will be a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which was planted. Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remaineth , seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
We read in the 13th chapter of Mark about the seed of the Gospel being planted. Some seed falls on rocky ground and springs up suddenly because of the shallowness of the earth. When the sun comes up they die away. Christians sometimes grab on to the seed of faith and are on fire for God, but when troubles come they fall away. They are not rooted and grounded in the faith which causes them to fall.
We read that some seed fell on good ground and took deep roots. These with deep roots produced much fruit; some 100 fold, some 60 fold, and some 30 fold. Believers who bring their friends, family, and acquaintances into the kingdom of the Living God are solid in their faith in Jesus. This is speaking of Christians who hear the Word of God, understand it, and then witness to others. They are grounded solidly in the Word of God themselves.
We read in chapter 13 of Matthew that the tares (non believers) and wheat (believers in Jesus) are to grow together until harvest time. This is a statement of Jesus Matthew 13:30 “ Let them grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”
The barn that the believers will be gathered into will be heaven with God. We can get a fuller view of this in the following Scriptures. Matthew 13:37 “He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;” Matthew 13:38 “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;” Matthew13:39 “The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” Matthew 13:40 “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.” 13:41 “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;” Matthew 13:42 “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
We read on that the believers in Jesus shall go to the kingdom of their Father, heaven. Matthew 13:43 “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
There are some more Scriptures on the harvest in Revelation. The harvest and the time of the end are the same time. Revelation 14:15 “And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time has come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe“ Revelation 14:16 “And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”
God help us to be the good seed at the time of planting and grow into the acceptable wheat at the time to be plucked up so that we might have eternal life with You.
A TIME TO KILL AND A TIME TO
HEAL
The 6th commandment of God tells us thou shalt not kill. Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.” Then how can we title this portion a time to kill?
God is not speaking of killing in war to preserve that which is right. In many instances God commanded His people to go in and take the land and kill everyone. God did not want His people going into these areas and marrying people who were worshipping false gods. He did not want the Hebrews to be swayed by these people and follow after their false gods.
Jesus explains the type of killing that is in the sixth commandment. It is premeditated murder. He said if you have hate in your heart, this is a desire to kill.
The heart will be judged and if we have the desire to kill, this is sin.
We must kill sometimes to preserve right or to
protect our loved ones and in my opinion this is not sin. When the children of
A very good example of a time to kill is in Exodus 12:12 “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night , and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord.” God killed their firstborn because the Pharaoh would not let God’s people go to their Promised Land.
God had brought 9 lesser plagues on
Another instance when it was necessary to kill is when David killed the giant Goliath and won a victory for God.
You see, there is a time to kill, but it must not be for selfish reasons. It must be a time approved of God.
It is nearly always the time to heal. Most of Jesus’ ministry here on the earth involved healing. Jesus never turned anyone down when they asked Him to heal them. Everyone who had the faith to accept His gift of healing received healing. When He healed each person He would say “your faith has made you whole.”
We read in 1 Peter 2:24 “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
The Scripture above means we have already been healed by Jesus on the cross. All we need to do is apply this promise to our lives and accept our healing from the Lord. This Scripture seems to indicate a healing for our spiritual body as well as our physical body. We must act upon this promise that Jesus has willed us.
A TIME TO BREAK DOWN AND A TIME TO BUILD
UP
Why did God not allow David to build His temple?
We read in 1 Kings 5:3 “Thou knowest how that David my father could not build a house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soul of his feet.” 1 Kings 5:4 “But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurent.” 1Kings 5:5 “And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build a house unto my name.”
You see, God had a specific time for this temple
to be built. God loved David and He gave David’s son Solomon the wisdom to build
the Holy
David had been a man of war and God waited until
Solomon (a man of peace and also David’s son) was ruler to build His temple in
The temple was erected on the spot where Abraham was about to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice to God.
It is interesting that God gave Solomon the wisdom to build this magnificent temple. The gold alone in this temple, figured at today’s gold price would have been worth over a billion dollars.
David gave a great portion of the gold to be used in the temple.
When all was ready, the most magnificent of all temples that had ever been built was erected.
Even this structure that housed the Ark of the Covenant, with Aaron’s rod that budded, the manna, and the Ten Commandments was later to be destroyed.
Today a Moslem Mosque sits over the spot where the temple once sat. One day very soon the mosque will be broken down to make room for the new temple.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and restore your temple.
A TIME TO WEEP AND A TIME TO
LAUGH
The shortest sentence in the Bible is John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” Jesus is our example in everything, so we know that there is a time to weep. When we lose a loved one, it is a normal thing to weep. We are actually weeping for ourselves, for how much we will miss them. If they are saved, we should not be weeping for them for they have gone to a much better place than here. They have gone to a place where there is no sorrow or pain. Where they have gone knows no time. They are dwelling in eternity.
The Bible says we should weep when someone is born and rejoice when he dies. The sorrow we feel at their birth is for the heartaches each person experiences through life on the earth.
Weeping is a loving emotion. We sometimes weep for happiness as well as sadness for it is an outward expression of an unexplainable love.
You have heard the expression (laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone). This is very true, for most people enjoy being around a joyous person. These same people will avoid someone who is sad. You see mood is contagious and they do not want to catch the sadness.
Laughter of little children is one of the most precious sounds. They are not fretting about world conditions and can be free to laugh at the wonderful little things that grownups overlook.
In chapter 26 of Psalms, we see that laughter and songs of praise to God in thanks for the great things He has done for them (read it all).
You see laughter and joyous times go hand in hand.
A TIME TO MOURN AND A TIME TO
DANCE
A story of contrast of mourning and a time to
dance is told in 2 Samuel about God’s chosen one, David. He (David) was beloved
of God and walked uprightly in the sight of God in all that he did and God loved
him very much. We read of David’s joy and celebration of praise before the Lord
dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. He was dancing as it was brought to the
city of
2 Samuel 6:14 “And David danced before the LORD
with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.” 2 Samuel 6:15 ”So David and all the
house of
You see, there was great rejoicing for David, as long as he stayed in God’s will. We read where David fell in love with Bathsheba (another man’s wife) and he lusted after her and slept with her. While her husband Uriah was away fighting in David’s army, Bathsheba found that she was expecting David’s child. One sin usually brings on another and this was no exception.
So that David might marry Bathsheba, he sent Uriah to the front of the battle and he was killed.
We find that even thou God loved David very much, He did not overlook his sin. We find in 2 Samuel what God tells David about this act of sin and what the punishment will be. 2 Samuel 12:14 “Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.” God sent this word by the prophet Nathan. If we were to read on, we would see that David prayed and fasted for the child with great mourning, but God did not spare the child. He fasted and prayed for 7 days before the child died.
David was forgiven by God for this terrible thing he had done. We see what God did after He forgave David. 2 Samuel 12:24 “And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him.
You see from this great contrast that anytime we are out of God’s will is a time to mourn and the only time to dance and rejoice is when we are pleasing God.
A TIME TO CAST AWAY STONES AND A TIME TO GATHER
STONES
We recently visited some friends in northern
The week we were there, they had hired a big bulldozer to come in and push all these big rocks down the hill and away from their garden. The time to cast stones away is to make room for something of more present necessity.
We also were delighted to see the new home that was being built on a hill there at the other side of the property. Guess what they were doing. They were gathering large stones to put on the sides of the house to make a stone house.
Isn’t it interesting that on the same farm, not ½ mile apart, they were casting away stones and gathering stones for their two very different projects.
We read in 1 Peter about Jesus being the cornerstone after being rejected. 1 Peter 2:6 “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.” In verse 5 just before this, the believers are spoken of as lively stones building up a spiritual house with Jesus as the cornerstone which gives the house strength.
A TIME TO EMBRACE AND A TIME TO REFRAIN FROM
EMBRACING.
What does the word embrace really mean? One of the most widely accepted meanings is (a mark of affection or passion). This then is not like a casual hug you might greet someone with. This has a sensual meaning (as between a man and his wife). The negative side of embracing then would be the misuse of embracing.
Nothing is more distasteful than to see someone embracing passionately in a public place. Passion should be reserved for the married couple and it should be behind closed doors.
Passionate embracing of a strange woman is spoken of negatively in Proverbs 5:20 “And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?” We read on in verse 22 that the one that does these things will be caught in the cords of his own sins.
We know that there is a time when it is correct to embrace. Even in public, if two friends meet it is nice to embrace (not passionately) but friendly. It is alright to hug a friend to show your affection for each other.
We read many instances in the Bible where men who had not seen each other for a long time embraced. God approved that type of an embrace. We read of such in Genesis 29:13 “And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things.”
This was a man embracing his nephew. Not a passionate embrace, but an affectionate embrace was what Laban did.
Another strong meaning for embrace is to be thoroughly convinced and grab onto something (as you would embrace an idea). Here, too, there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
You see, we should refrain from embracing the doctrine of the cults that are so prevalent in our world today.
When the offer of Christianity comes our way, we must quickly embrace it. When you are thoroughly convinced of the true doctrine, grab on to it while the opportunity is there.
Embracing, you see, is like so many other things. The proper embrace is a wonderful thing, but the improper use of an embrace can spell disaster.
Next time, before we embrace, ask ourselves is this proper or improper?
A TIME TO GET AND A TIME TO
LOSE
We read that there is a time to receive in 2 Kings 5:26 “And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and menservants and maidservants?”
We have had a wrong attitude toward material things. God has provided them for the use of man. We need to keep in mind that they are gifts from God. When opportunity arises, it is time to prosper; we must not let our chance go by, but grasp on and succeed with the help of God.
We read what those who give up families for the Lord shall receive. This is in red in the Bible and is Jesus speaking. Mark 10:29 “And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s.”
Mark 10:30 “But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
How gladly we should give up things of this world so that we might get the greatest gift (eternal life with Him).
We read in Job of a man who had gotten great wealth and a large family. Satan told God that Job would not be faithful if God would allow him to take everything away. Job lost everything except his faith in God as he lost his children, his health, and his wealth. You see, Satan lost, for Job did not turn against God. God restored all to Job, and gave him twice what he had before, and restored Job a family as well, the same size family he had before.
There is a good lesson to be learned here. Whether it is our time to get or our time to lose, be thankful to God and trust Him in every situation. God will bless you abundantly for your faith and trust in Him.
A TIME TO KEEP AND A TIME TO CAST
AWAY
There are a number of things we should keep. We are admonished to keep the faith on many occasions in the Bible. We all have an inner desire to keep things. We really should be more concerned with the spiritual things than the physical things. In a sense, these are both spiritual, for we are told to cast our cares upon Him.
When we think of advice, we see there is good advice that we should keep. On the other hand we are told to be careful about the advice others give us. Some advice is bad, we should cast it away.
In 1 Kings Chapter 12 Rehoboam was asked by the people to make their yoke a little easier than it had been with the previous king. He told the people that he would give them an answer in three days. Rehoboam consulted with the older men (who had stood before Solomon his father while he lived) and asked them what to do.
The older men told Rehoboam to be a servant to the people and speak good words to them, and they would be his servant forever. He did not like the older men’s advice, so he asked some of the young men, that he had grown up with, what he should do. They advised him to make it much harder on the people. We see whose advice he took and what he said to the people in 1 Kings 12:13 “And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him ;” 1 Kings 12:14 “ And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke:
my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.”
The Scripture goes on to say the people turned against Rehoboam, and even killed his messenger.
You see, it is very important what advice you take. Usually an experienced person can give the best advice for they have traveled that way before.
Again, sometimes it is best to cast away, sometimes it is best to keep.
A TIME TO REND AND A TIME TO
SEW
There is an interesting Scripture on this very thing in 2 Samuel 3:31 “And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Rend you clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And King David himself followed the bier.”
Today this seems so strange to us. It seems that rending the clothes accompanied agonizing mourning. Mourning so great that that the rending of the clothes was showing lack of importance of things of material worth.
We can associate such agonizing mourning when God rent the temple veil from top to bottom in the temple when Jesus (His only begotten Son) gave His body on the cross for our sins.
Just as this gives release to us and opens a way for God to minister to us, the rending of the curtain made a way for us to have free access to God the Father.
God is a Holy God and a perfect God. He had given instructions earlier on how to sew this very veil (curtain) with hammered gold wires so it would be strong and last a long time. Man could never have torn it, only God could do this.
God Himself proved with this one veil (curtain) that there is a time to rend and a time to sew.
A TIME TO KEEP SILENCE AND A TIME TO
SPEAK
Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
This is an unusual Scripture. It seems to mean that we should reverently listen and be quiet before God. We are commanded of God to be still and listen in Psalms 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
In many churches today it is very noisy. People come in chattering and continue to talk in the sanctuary. God would probably rather we came in prayerfully; ready to receive from Him. Where God is present is Holy Ground, as he told Moses to take off his shoes for he was on holy ground.
This being a quiet person can go further than in the church. Many serious arguments between husband and wife could be avoided, if one would keep silent while the other is angry. It takes two to have an argument.
A smart person will listen more that they talk. Proverbs 17:27 “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit,” Proverbs 17:28 “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed: a man of understanding.”
With all this we might think there is never a time to speak up, but quite the opposite is true. We read in 1 Peter 4:11 “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
We must always speak up for God and His people. Even our salvation depends on us speaking. Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “Romans 10:10 “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
So here again we see there is a time to speak and a time to be silent.
A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO
HATE
Hate is a word that I do not like, but God says there is a time to hate. There is a Scripture in Revelation where God is approving the hate. Revelation 2:6 “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes which I also hate.”
It is interesting to note, that it was the deeds we are to hate, not the people. The Bible says to hate the sin, but love the sinner. Hate, then, is reserved for evil.
There are very few words in anyone’s language to compare with love. God commands us to love our enemies in Matthew 5:43 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you , Love your enemies , bless them that curse you , do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you:”
Matthew 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.”
He loved the world so much that while we were yet in sin He sent His only begotten Son to give His flesh to death on the cross that we might be saved. So great a love is hard to comprehend. It is God’s kind of love.
Love is so strong that it is one of the names God is called. God is Love.
A TIME OF WAR AND A TIME OF
PEACE
Wars and rumors of wars will be the condition of the earth right up until the time for the Lord to come back. We read in Matthew 24:6 “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
You see, wars will be the rule of the day. God is not against war , when it is for the preservation of right. He, in fact, instructed His people to war against people who were worshipping false gods.
God was very angry with the Hebrews when they spied out the Promised Land and brought back a bad report. Their excuse was that there were giants in the land. God did not accept this excuse and counted it lack of faith in Him. When He was with His people they were mighty in war. They were undefeated because the people they were fighting were afraid of the God of the Hebrews. When God removed His blessing they would be defeated. God made them wander in the wilderness for their unbelief for 40 years to compensate for their 40 days of disbelief.
One of the most interesting examples of God’s blessings in battles is found in Exodus chapter 17. God had sent Joshua to battle Amalek. We find in verse 11 that as long as Moses had his hands raised to God in praise, Joshua was winning. When Moses got tired and dropped his hands, Amalek would begin to win. Aaron and Hur supported Moses’arms long enough and with God’s help they defeated Amalek.
In my opinion, in World War 2 the
We read how peace will reign and there will no longer be a need for war materials in Micah 4:3 “And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Then there will be peace around the world. You see, there is a time of war and a time of peace.
A TIME TO FORGIVE AND A TIME TO BE
FORGIVEN
The Lord’s Prayer explains that we must forgive if we are to be forgiven. We read in Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 and 22 just how many times we are to forgive someone. Mathew 18:21 “Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Matthew 18:22 “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.”
The greatest act of forgiveness ever recorded was when Jesus, suffering on the cross, asked God the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do.
We all have painful memories of doing something wrong and having to ask for forgiveness. Our earthly parents have forgiven us so many times, so have our teachers, our brothers, sisters, and especially our friends.
We also have sweet memories of times when we have been able to forgive someone for a hurtful thing they have done to us. I really think the hardest one to forgive is ourselves.
The most wonderful time we receive forgiveness is when Jesus forgave us for all of our sins and actually took the punishment we deserved for those sins, when He gave His body on the cross. His shed blood took away our guilt of sin.
There must be a time of forgiveness. The Bible says don’t let the sun go down on your wrath. The time to forgive and to be forgiven is now.
The Bible also says if we go to the altar with a gift, we must first go and forgive our brother, and then come and return with the gift to the altar.
You see, we serve a forgiving God who expects us to forgive also.
An interesting story in the Bible tells of a man who owed a large sum of money to the king. Just as he was about to be sent to prison for not paying the debt, he begged forgiveness from the king. The king forgave him the debt totally and set him free. As soon as the man was free he saw a man who owed him a small sum that he could not pay. The second man begged for forgiveness. The man would not forgive him and sent him to prison for the debt. When the king heard what had happened, he sent for the man and put him in prison because he had not forgiven his fellow servant.
You see, to get forgiveness, you must forgive.
TIME FOR SALVATION
2 Corinthians 6:2 “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.)”
There is a time when the Holy Spirit draws us, and that is our acceptable time to be saved. When we are wooed by the Holy Spirit we must not wait but accept that as our time of salvation. It explains it so well in Jesus’ own Words in John 6:44 “No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. “
You see, God will not always strive with us. He will allow us to have our own way, even if it leads to our destruction.
We read that God wants all of us to be saved. That is the very reason He has delayed His return to the earth for He wishes all to be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance .”
Many people believe that God before the world began decided who would be saved and who would not. They also believe that nothing we do or say on this earth affects that. I do not believe that.
I am aware that God wrote our name in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the world began, but this is because He lives in eternity, not day to day as we live. He sees into the future. He knew the end of the world as well as the beginning, because He is the Beginning and the End. He looked into the future and knew the decision we would make, not because we were puppets and had no choice.
We read in Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. “ It explains this very well in Romans 10:10 “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
I often compare the Holy Spirit wooing the Christian to a man who sees a woman he would like to have for a wife. The man goes all out for the woman and it is the man who asks the woman to marry him. She has the power to accept his proposal of marriage or to reject it. God offers salvation to us, and we have the power, He gave us of a free will, to accept or reject salvation.
In a marriage proposal the man may come back several times and ask again for the woman to marry him. If she continues to say no, he finally gives up and does not ask her any more.
The Bible says God will not always strive with us
either. If we do not accept His offer of salvation, He will finally stop asking
us, and we will lose our opportunity for salvation. Now is the time for salvation, tomorrow
may be too late.
TIME OF TESTING AND
TRIALS
Forty has always been the number associated with testing periods in the Bible.
In the days of Noah, when the flood came, it
rained forty days and nights. The strange thing is that it had never rained on
the earth until that time. The water came from beneath the earth to water
everything. We read of Moses leading the children of
Another instance was when God told Moses to send Joshua, Caleb and ten other men to search out the Promised Land for forty days. All but Joshua and Caleb came back with a bad report. Because of their lack of faith, God had them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. They failed their test and God did not let the ten go into the Promised Land. They died in the wilderness. Joshua and Caleb lived to see the Promised Land and lead the children over into the Promised land.
Another example is when Jonah was ordered of God to go to Ninevah and warn them of His plan to destroy them, if they did not repent. This is the same Jonah that was swallowed by the great fish. Jonah finally obeyed God and walked through the land for forty days warning of their destruction if they did not repent. They repented and God spared their land.
When Goliath (the giant) came against the children
of
The most promising example of forty being a time of testing is when Jesus was fasting for forty days and nights on the mountain top. He was tested in every temptation that we have on this earth. Jesus did not yield to temptation, but with every temptation fought Satan with the Word of God. In every reply He gave He said, “it is written”. We could take a lesson from this and fight Satan when he attacks us with the Word of God and the name of Jesus. The Word is as powerful as a two-edged sword.
Taking all of this into consideration, and realizing that Jesus is our example, I can not believe we, Christians, will be spared the time of testing.
When I ponder just when the Lord will return for his people (the blessed of God) an interesting Scripture comes to mind. Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Daniel 12:12 “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” Isn’t it interesting that the time between these two times is 45 days. The next verse of chapter 12 tells us this happens at the end of the days.
Another Scripture that is interesting on this subject is in 1 Peter 1:7 “That the trial
of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
From this Scripture and the ones above, we might assume that there would be a trial of our faith before Jesus Christ appears. Will it be forty days?
In Matthew chapter 24 Jesus is telling of
serious times coming upon the earth. It speaks of some of these things
specifically in the verses before verse 29 and then says the following in verse
29. Matthew 24:29 “Immediately
after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the heaven shall be shaken:” Matthew 24:30 “And then shall appear the sign of
the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory.” Matthew 24:31 “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other.”
THE TIME OF THE END
We hear so much today about the end of the world. What does this really mean? The end of the world will not be for at least another thousand years, because Jesus is to reign on the earth for that period of time after His return. We read this in Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Most people when speaking of the end of the world are speaking of the end of the Gentile age. This end of the Gentile age does seem to be near as we read in 2 Timothy 3:1 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” 2 Timothy 3:2 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,” 2 Timothy 3:3 “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good” 2 Timothy 3:4 “Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;” 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away” We can easily see our generation in all of this.
We know that the fulfillment of the end of the
Gentile age must coincide with the return of
We read in the 24th chapter of Matthew
the parable of the fig tree. We read that when the fig tree blooms,
(
What will be some of the other signs that His return is near? Strange we ask the same questions the apostles asked Jesus. We read of some of them in Matthew 24:7 “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.” We read In Matthew 24:11 “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” We read another sign in Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come.”
The wars have occurred. There are famines in
There is only One Christ and His name is Jesus the
Christ the Son of the living God.
Do not let people deceive you. When
Christ Jesus returns all will know that He is the One. Matthew 24:27 “For as the
lightning comes out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be.” We will not have to search for Him. He
will appear in the sky. We know this is true by what the angels said to the
apostles in the book of Acts. Acts 1:9 “And when he had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their
sight.” Acts 1:10 “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went
up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;” Acts 1:11 “Which also said,
Ye men of
One very real sign of the end is the
homosexuality, pornography, sex perversion, and humanity worship of all kinds of
our day. God did not spare
In chapter 13 of Revelation we read of the ten nation alliance that will appear at the end. Revelation 13:1 “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, an saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”
Isn’t it interesting that
One of the most timely signs of the end, in my
opinion, is the age of the computer. We are buying and selling with numbers on
computer cards. Now much of our banking is just a computer entry. Our social
security number is required on nearly everything. These computers have gotten to
be so efficient that one computer in
WWW is 666 in some languages.
Many of the people throughout time since Jesus’ resurrection have felt that it was the end. Why is our time special?
If you carefully think about it, the end of time for them was near because it happened within 100 years of their birth, for they died. Many types of antichrist did live and did deceive many. One of those we would have to say was Hitler. They were a type of antichrist, not the antichrist. Anyone who does not believe in Jesus is a type of antichrist. There is just one antichrist who will reign for 7 years during the tribulation period.
There is one generation of Christians who will not die, but will be caught up into heaven with God. I believe it is our generation, because of all of the signs of the end have been fulfilled for the first time.
We read that we will not know the exact time of our departure but we will know when it is near. 1 Thessalonians 5:1 “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” It goes on to say the Christians will know when it is near. Read all of chapter 5.
The Scriptures compare it with the birth of a baby. When the pain begins, the mother knows the birth is near. She does not know the exact time though. We read in verse 4 of chapter 5 that the Christians are not in darkness. They will know when the time is near.
We are prayerfully awaiting the soon return of Jesus as King of kings, and Lord of lords. Then time shall be no more.